Opening the record…
Opening the record…
Iraq Monitor is an independent platform that tracks Iraq from primary sources: what its actors say in their own words, what the state records in its own documents, and what the data shows. Everything we publish links to the source it rests on.
Findings rest on the actors’ own words, the state’s own documents and the publishing institutions’ own data. Outside reporting is labelled as such and is never the sole basis of a finding.
We report what a party said and attribute it to them, and keep our own assessment visibly separate. A claim carries its status — claimed, denied, said — never a verdict.
Every claim is checked against its evidence before it is published. Anything that falls short is held for a human expert rather than published with a hedge.
Items are published under Iraq Monitor’s name rather than individual bylines, and the platform answers for each of them. The people responsible are listed on Who we are.
Strikes, casualties, arrests, deployments. Threats and predictions are recorded but never scored, because nothing outside could confirm or refute them.
What would disprove a claim is written down before any search is run. A claim counts as borne out only if the same event is reported outside the militias’ own channels — by Iraqi or international media, official statements or monitoring groups. Claims are rechecked as that reporting catches up.
Below 10 checked claims a source shows counts, not a percentage. Claims about places beyond our reach are published but never rated, and “untraced” never means false.
Audit tables are transcribed twice, independently, and must reconcile with the totals the report prints; a table that does not is withheld.
Iraq Monitor uses language models to collect and read sources, draft items, transcribe documents and check claims against independent reporting. A second model reviews every claim against its evidence, anything below the threshold goes to a human expert, and expert corrections become rules the models follow.
Because every claim links to its source, any reading can be checked against the original.
Errors are corrected on the page, with the time and what changed. Withdrawn items stay at their address with the reason they were withdrawn. Nothing is silently deleted.
To report an error, write to desk@iraqmonitor.com.
Iraq Monitor is an independent platform, founded and edited by Hamdi Malik.
Iraq Monitor is independent. It carries no advertising, sponsored content or affiliate links.
Quote and link freely: name Iraq Monitor and link the specific page. Attribute a reported claim to the party that made it.
Economic series are reusable under CC BY 4.0. Terms for crawlers and AI systems are at /license.xml.
For corrections and press enquiries, write to desk@iraqmonitor.com.
Map creditsOpenFreeMap, OpenMapTiles and OpenStreetMap contributors. Dark Matter design © 2024 MapTiler.com & OpenMapTiles contributors, CC BY 4.0; derived from CartoDB Basemaps © 2015 CartoDB Inc., designed by Stamen and Paul Norman, CC BY 3.0. Colours, labels and data layers adapted by Iraq Monitor. Governorate outlines: geoBoundaries gbOpen, CC0. Full licence notices.